HUDSON'S BAY. 



SS5 



B'I remote situation ; and, in summer, they guard us much 

 as possible against surprise, by residing chiefly on 



* Mand* and peninsulas ,- hut with all these precautions, 

 they arc often so harassed and closely pressed by their 

 pursuers, as to be obliged to leave behind, them those 

 goods and utensiN upon which they depend for pro- 

 i tiring subsistence, and the loss of which they cannot 

 replace without a great expence of time and labour. 

 These more northern Esquimaux are of low stature and 

 broad figure, but neither strong nor well proportioned. 

 Their complexion is of a dirty copper colour, but some 

 of their women are considerably fairer. They have a 

 singular custom which distinguishes them as a peculiar 

 tribe, namely, that all the men have the hairs of their 

 head* polled out by the rout ; but in most other re- 

 spects, they resemble the Esquimaux of Hudson's 

 Straits and Labradore. Their arms and utensils, from 

 the want of proper tools, are very inferior in workman- 

 ship to those of the more southern tribes of their na- 

 tion ; yet even with the imperfect instrument* in their 

 poteeacion, many of their articles of furniture arc form- 

 ed and ornamented with wonderful ingenuity, especial* 

 ly their (tone kettle*. They are made of a grey porous 

 /tone, of an oblong square shape, wider at the top than 

 the bottom, with strong handles of solid stone left at 

 each end for the purpose of lifting them more conve- 

 niently, and are sometimes large enough to contain five 

 or fix gallons. They are all ornamented with neat 

 mouldings around the rim, and occasionally with a kind 

 of fluted work at the comers ; and all this is executed 

 with no other instruments than such a* are made of a 

 harder kind of stone. Their arrows, spears, dartt, tee. 

 are generally pointed with a triangular piece of Mack 

 tone, or sometiaie* a piece of copper. Their took for 



wood work are entirely of this metal, namely, hrtcheti, 

 broad bayonets, and women's knives. The hatchets are 

 maiU of a thick piece of copper, about five or six inches 

 long, and from one anil a half to two inches square, be- 

 velled away at one end like a mortice chisel, and fas- 

 tened at the other to a wooden handle about twelve or 

 fourteen inches in length, so a* to resemble an adxr ; 

 but they have neither weight nor sharpnett to act like 

 an adze or hatchet, and are generally applied in work- 

 ike a chisel, being driven into the wood with a 

 heavy dub. The bayonet* resemble an an of spado, 

 and are fastened to a handle of deer'* horn about a foot 

 Ions;. During summer, they live in circular trot* co- 

 vered with deer skirts, and employ theoMelve* princi- 

 pally in fishing ; but, in winter, they occupy small bou, 

 the lower halfof which u sunk below the surface of 

 the earth, and the upper part formed with pole* which 

 meet at the ton in a conical form. These who reticle 

 ear C hurchhill river travel, in winter, from lake to lake, 

 or from river to river, where they have gi*iim of 

 provision*, and heap* of moss for fuel; but as those 

 -tations are often far distant from each other, they fre- 

 quently pitch their tent* on the ice, and cut hole* in 

 the ice within the tent, where they sit and angle for 

 fish, which, fur want of fire, they eat in a manner alive 

 a* they come out of the water, and are altogether a mi- 

 serable starving race of being*. 



The original Hudson's Bay Company appear to have 

 acted upon the moat Lberal and benevolent pnnoipJe*. 

 Their instructions to their factors contain the raort ex- 

 plicit direction*, to ue every mean in their power for 

 reclaiming the Indian* from a itate of barbarism, and 

 i~-L. .;.., , tj,^ jjjjnj, ^ pri^p^ of Chrwliani- 



ty. They were, at the same time, admonished, to trade 

 with them equitably, and to take no advantage of their 

 native simplicity ; to explore the country, and to study 

 to derive such benefit from its soil and produce, as 

 might redounil to the interest of the mother- country, 

 as well as to their own emolument ; to watch over the 

 behaviour of the European servants, especially as to so- 

 briety, temperance, and veneration for the services of 

 religion. The chief person in command at each settle- 

 ment is called the governor of the fort, and sometimes 

 there is one appointed to act under him termed the se- 

 cond. These, with the surgeon and the master of the 

 sloop attached to the place, constitute a council, who 

 deliberate together in all matters of importance, or cases 

 of emergency. The governors are appointed for a pe- 

 riod of three or five years, and have from if 50 to 150 

 per annum as fixed salary, with a premium upon the 

 trade, which consequently fluctuates according to its 

 amount.* The labouring servants, who are chiefly 

 procured from the Orkney islands, are generally en- 

 gaged fur three, four, or five years, and, about twenty 

 years ago, received .!'(> per annum as wages, indepen- 

 dent of maintenance. Their employments consist prin- 

 cipally in carrying fuel, sledging the snow out of the 

 avenues of the factory, and hunting. The company 

 export musket*, pistols, powder, shot, brass and iron 

 kettles, hatchets, knives, cloth, blankets, baize, flannels, 

 gun-worm*, *teel(, and flints, hats, looking-glasses, 

 x>ks, rings, belts, needles, thimbles, glass-beads, 

 vermilion, thread, brandy, \c. with which they pur- 

 chase from the natives skin*, furs, whalebone, train oil , 

 ivory, eider-down, etc. The trade was understood, in 

 its original flourishing state, to be the most profitable 

 in the world ; and the proprietors of the stock were 

 generally sappoxd to gam about 2000 per cent. It 

 has been denounced, however, as proportionably detri- 

 mental to the mother, country ; and it has been affirm- 

 ed, that, if laid entirely open, the number of persons 

 employed, and the quantity of wares exported, might 

 easily be increased ten-fold. The company are charged, 

 at the same time, with transacting all their affairs with 

 the greatest seciecy, and always shewing the utmost 

 reluctance to expose the details of their trade to public 

 view. On the other band, during a parliamentary in- 

 quiry into their proceeding* in 1749, they produced 

 document* to prove, that their profit* were lulliciently 

 limited, a* appear* from the following summary of 

 their expenditure and return*, in the space of ten years, 

 from 1739 to 1748 inclusive: 



Charges of shipping, fartorin, &c~ in ten 



year* '157.432 14 4 



Exports during that period ... 52,465 9 



Total expence* . . 209,896 S 4 

 : of sales . 'J73.642 18 8 



HiwisonS 

 By. 



Clear profit* from the trade in ten l j^C3 C46 15 4 



Dividend* in one year among 100? rr< 

 *hare of 100 each . . J / 



For each proprietor of 100 stock . . 63 12 11 



The following account of import* and nale* for one 

 year, from Michaclma* 1747 to Michaelmas 1748, may 





40; n 



, Ji ; Ml a cl<tk, IS ftr wnurn. 



